1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium exchanged between a customer and a printing service provider upon placing an order of photograph print, and more specifically to a data structure of the ordering information to be recorded in the recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
An order of photograph print is placed by filling an order sheet with the name and address of an orderer, the frame number and the quantity of photographs to be printed, the size of the photograph print, and the like.
However, digitization of photographic services has been taking place recently, and it is being realized to order photograph print by bringing in a medium such as an MO disc, a Zip disc, and a CD-R wherein image data having been digitized by reading a film are recorded. Alternatively, a method has been proposed wherein image data are registered in a server computer of a service provider in advance and printing is carried out without exchanging a medium.
Following the digitization, it has been proposed that ordering information, which used to be provided from a customer to a service provider in an order sheet, should also be provided as digital data.
In the current printing services using image data, an order is placed by filling an order sheet with a file name of image data to be printed among image data recorded in a recording medium brought in (or among image data having been registered in a server computer). Therefore, as a method to describe ordering information taking the form of digital data, a data format has been proposed wherein the content of a conventional order sheet is merely digitized as it is. More specifically, the size of a field for each kind of information is defined, such as the first 16 bytes of the name of an orderer, the following 48 bytes the address, and thereafter, for each order, 12 bytes of a file name, 2 bytes of the quantity, and 2 bytes of the size.
Following the spread of personal computers and the Internet, a variety of completely new needs have been arising regarding photograph printing services.
As one of such needs, it is expected to enrich the kinds of image data to be specified as printing targets. In other words, following the proposals of network photograph systems or the like which receive printing orders on the Internet, a need of printing a photograph image available on the Internet, not a photograph the customer has at hand, emerges for example.
However, since the network photograph systems which have been proposed so far are the systems to order printing of photographs which printing service providers manage (for example, the photographs which a customer of a printing service provider has registered), the case such as the above has not been considered. Therefore, if a customer wishes to print a photograph managed (published) on a server computer by a party other than the printing service provider of the customer, the customer has to download the image file, store the file in a removable medium and order printing in the same manner as for his/her own photographs in hand.
Another expectation is to enrich the kinds of image processing to be carried out on image data. In other words, in a digital photograph service which is different from exposure printing, various kinds of image processing can be carried out on image data. Therefore, it is expected that a customer who used to grumble about the bad finish of a photograph and have no choice but to give up and nationalize that it is a failure of photographing will now be able to place a detailed order regarding image processing, such as including red eye correction data in the order and thus be satisfied with the finish.
The content of the image processing which a service provider can provide as photograph image finishing processing may vary in accordance with the improvement of technologies. Following this change, it is possible for the data format of ordering information to change frequently. Furthermore, if delivery processing of finished prints becomes automated, the number and the kind of programs which refer to the ordering information for processing will increase. On this occasion, the ordering information exploring the conventional data structure described above is not preferable, because all programs incorporated in a photograph finishing system need to be modified regarding a field referred therein (i.e., every time the data structure is changed).
Therefore, it is preferable that the data structure of ordering information be able to deal with the new needs described above and flexibly cope with the needs which may emerge in the future.
The present invention includes a computer-readable recording medium for recording photograph print ordering information therein, wherein the ordering information is recorded as a structured storage file having a hierarchy structure, the structured storage file comprising an orderer stream describing information regarding an orderer and at least one order storage describing the content of an order, and the order storage comprising a link information stream describing link information to photograph image data to be printed and an order content stream describing the content of the order regarding the photograph image data having been pointed out by the link information.
The structured storage file having a hierarchy structure herein referred to is used when different kinds of applications handle one file. One structured storage file has a hierarchy structure which is similar to a directory in a conventional file system, and each component thereof can be handled by different applications. A stream is a component of structured storage and a storage stores a stream (equivalent to the function of a conventional directory). Since the structured storage is widely known as a technique used in Component Object Model (COM) proposed by the Microsoft Corp., its detailed explanation is not provided here.
The ordering information of the present invention described above has only the name and address as the information regarding an orderer, for example. When the function is extended so that the ordering information includes an E-mail address, the photograph finishing system in order to deal with the ordering information has to be modified only with regard to the programs referring to the information regarding an orderer, and does not need to be modified on the other programs such as programs for image processing, for example. In other words, labor for program modification due to a change in a function will be greatly saved.
Another feature of the present invention is to specify a target of printing by link information, not by the name of a file thereof. The link information means, for example, a character string such as xe2x80x9c fujifilm.co.jp filename.fpxxe2x80x9d. This is to specify a target of printing in a more general form adaptable to a network, and a conventional file name can be treated as a kind of link information by including a path name therewith such as xe2x80x9cC: IMAGES filename.fpxxe2x80x9d.
A system of the present invention receives ordering information stored on such a data structure and creates photograph prints. In other words, the system deals with the computer-readable recording medium for recording the ordering information of photograph prints, and includes recording means which store a digitized photograph as image data, ordering information reading means which reads the ordering information recorded in the recording medium, printing target searching means which receives from a predetermined object instance recognizing means a pointer for handling the photograph image data by providing to the object instance recognizing means the link information included in the ordering information having been read by the ordering information reading means, and print generating means which generates the print by referring to the image data by using the pointer obtained by the printing target searching means.
As in a conventional system, the xe2x80x9crecording meansxe2x80x9d means a removable medium such as a FD, an MO disc, a Zip disc, or a hard disc of a computer managed by a DPE or a laboratory. However, a hard disc of a computer owned by a DPE other than the one which receives an order is included as the recording means in the present invention.
Therefore, it is preferable that the photograph image data be stored in a standardized format having higher generality, rather than in an original format adopted by one company. As such a format, FlashPix Format having been proposed by several companies headed by the Eastman Kodak Company as a standard format of digital image, or Exif format which is an image file format for a digital still camera and proposed by Japan Electronic Industry Development Association can be used.
A great difference between a conventional system and the one according to the present invention lies in the manner in which a photograph image file is searched for or identified by the printing target searching means. In other words, in a conventional system, it is predetermined where to store a photograph image file, and a printing target searching means finds a target file by sequentially searching files having been stored in the predetermined storage location. On the other hand, the printing target searching means of the present invention provides the link information shown by the ordering information to the predetermined object instance recognizing means, and the object instance recognizing means searches for a target file and returns to the printing target searching means the pointer of the file having been found. In other words, the printing target searching means of the present invention does not need a detailed regulation on where to store photograph image data, and a storage location of photograph image files has a very high degree of freedom.
The object instance recognizing means is analog is to an xe2x80x9cOLE monikerxe2x80x9d or a xe2x80x9cURL monikerxe2x80x9d in the OLE technology or in the ActiveX technology proposed by the Microsoft Corp. However, the object instance recognizing means is not necessarily limited to the above, and may be a means which plays the same role in another object oriented model. The format of the link information is meant to follow a standard class which has been defined in accordance with the moniker.
In an object oriented model, the details of an object are generally not seen by a client. A moniker is used to carry out for a client various kinds of processing which should be carried out in order to use the object. By using a moniker, a client can utilize a necessary object without performing complex processing itself.
Therefore, it is not necessarily required to use an object through a moniker if the storage locations of objects are limited a (easy to remember where objects have been stored) and an object can be used easily. In other words, in a conventional photograph finishing system wherein the storage location of photograph image data is limited to a removable medium or a hard disc of the system, it is meaningless to use a moniker.
However, since the printing service which Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd. is going to provide does not restrict where photograph image files are stored, the stem needs to search all accessible recording means for target photograph image data. For example processing including searching for the target file, connecting to a computer wherein the target file is stored, or transferring the photograph image data from the computer, can be carried out effectively by using the moniker.
In other words, by using the moniker, the printing target searching means can, without considering the difference between remote files and local files, search for a printing target file easily by the same processing for both kinds of files. Furthermore, the search for a printing target can be carried out by the same processing in both cases where a photograph image is stored as an individual file and as data embedded in a file.
However, the system of the present invention does not exclude the form of photograph image data storage in a limited location as has been adopted in a conventional system.
The data structure of the ordering information of the present invention is advantageously utilized to improve processing effectiveness of a photograph finishing system or modification effectiveness upon function extension. It is obviously not preferable to force a customer to generate ordering information to accommodate the data structure. Therefore, it is preferable that a service provider provide its customers with personal computer application software or the like which can easily record the ordering information in a recording medium.
A recording medium readable by a computer stores such a software program described above whereby a computer executes processing of inputting information regarding an orderer of a printing order, inputting link information to image data to be printed, inputting information regarding the content of the printing order, describing the information regarding the orderer in an orderer stream, describing the link information in a link information stream, and describing processing regarding the content of the order in an order content stream.
According to the computer-readable recording medium for recording the ordering information of photograph print, the ordering information is recorded in the form of a structured storage file having a hierarchy in the recording medium. Therefore, if details of each stream composing the file are changed, only programs referring to the stream need to be modified in the system, and a system which is substantial upon function extension can be realized.
Furthermore, since a printing target is described in the ordering information as the link information rather than by a conventional file name thereof, the range of photograph image data which can be specified as a printing target is extended. For example, according to this form of specifying a photograph, not only a conventional individual image file but also image data embedded in a document file can be specified as a printing target.
On this occasion, the system of the present invention searches for the image data by using the moniker. Since the link information specified in the ordering information is used as it is as a parameter to be handed to the moniker and used in the search, it is not necessary for the photograph finishing system to have an original file managing function (for example, compiling a table relating an image file to its storage location). In other words, labor needed for system maintenance will be greatly reduced.
Moreover, since an application which can record the ordering information in a medium easily on a personal computer is provided by the recording medium wherein the program of the present invention is recorded, customers can use a more improved printing service as easily as they use a conventional service.